First Combat Assault

Company A

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

FIRST COMBAT ASSAULT, FIRST CRASH!

by 'FNG', WO-1, John L. Keller, 1st Flt Plt, A/227th

I had arrived in the unit on the 23rd of April, 1966, after in-processing at Camp Alpha and then First Cavalry Division Replacement Section. I was really looking forward to flying the UH-1D after flying only UH-1A and B Models at Fort Rucker. The School even let us have a look at a UH-1D once, before graduating on 29 March, 1966. I was really 'pumped' to fly that 'monster' of an aircraft.
I was assigned to fly with CW-2 John C. 'Jake' Cogburn; one of the 'in-country' Company IPs. He was a former Korean War Platoon Sergeant with the First Cavalry Division. Jake was a cigar smoking/chewing tough old bird, who at thirty-four was grumpy as hell and yet, a really great Instructor. He had been with the 11th Air Assault through all of the exercises before it became the rebirth of The First Cavalry Division in July, 1965. He and I had lived through a 'near mid-air collision' while doing full touch down autorotations west of the POL point at the Golf Course. That is another story in itself!
On 1 May, 1966 (MAY DAY, ironically) Jake and I were assigned to fly 63-08847 for a 0800 lift out of a PZ south of the An Khe Airport. The CAV Troopers had been out there overnight and we were scheduled to move them to a ridgeline further south so they could sweep the area back towards our base camp. SSG Herbert Givens was the Crewchief and Doorgunner was PFC Dominick Benedetto. We loaded seven troops at the PZ and in a flight of four we were on the right side of a 'heavy left' formation as 'chalk 2.' With the heavy load and the weaker Lycoming L-7 engine, we lost rotor RPMs on takeoff, but managed to struggle into the air. Jake explained that this is what you had to get used to when flying with the complement of 6 or 7 troops and all their gear.
As we approached the ridgeline, flight leader Captain John Stipes and CW-2 Charlie Howell called for the rest of us to fly 'line abreast.' We had our place picked out on the far right side of the LZ and D/227th gunships were prepping the areas of trees and rocks on both sides of the formation landing zone. Everything looked good, but then the number 1 bird started taking automatic weapon fire from the tree line on the left side of the LZ. They moved their UH-1D to the right to stay away from the tracers, and the other two aircraft to our left followed suit! We were now on short, short final and starting to pull pitch for the touchdown. SSG Givens yelled for us to 'Move right,' but we had nothing but tall rocks to our right and front. I was at the controls and Jake was following through, so I pulled more pitch to try a go-around as Jake announced to the formation that we were 'going around, right side.' Jake saw that we were not going to clear the rocks in front so he took full control and turned ninety degrees to the right to try to gain back RPM and head down hill. 847 with the heavy load and low RPM started to spin, so Jake 'chopped' the throttle and the aircraft did a hovering auto to the down slope. Our left rear skid hit first and 'crunched' enough to break the crosstube attachment to the skid. Jake yelled to SSG Givens to 'get the troops out down slope!' The Platoon Sergeant on our bird 'unassed' the aircraft to the upslope as Jake was bringing up the RPM to hold 847 from rolling down the hill! That Platoon Sergeant, a SFC, was hit by the first rotor blade and tore his M-16 and steel pot from him. The second blade came around and tore off the top of his head. Jake had everyone else exit the helicopter and then he shut it down with the damaged blades and skids. Once the blades stopped, the four of us crewmembers got together at the top of the ridgeline: passing the dead Platoon Sergeant, and waited for the rigging crew from maintenance. We were in the LZ about an hour with the troops providing perimeter.
We went back to Golf Course with the rigging crew while a Skycrane lifted the helicopter back to the Company flightline. Jake wasn't too happy with our flight leader leaving us no where to go at the last minute. His chosen words cannot be printed. The maintenance platoon got to work on 847 and with two new blades and a set of skids; Jake and I flew another combat assault with it at 0530 the next morning! SSG Givens just had to caution us NOT to repeat yesterday's flight

ADDENDUM

As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now for the rest of the story."
I searched the web site, [www.thewall-usa.com] for a name of the Platoon SGT who was KIA on May 1, 1966 during the UH-1D 63-08847 crash I mentioned in my story.
SSGT Carlos Gonzalez began his tour on January 4, 1966 and had 16 years in the U.S. ARMY. That is the tragic end to my story.